The Saudi Civil Defense announced, on Thursday, that a kindergarten and a medical clinic complex in the capital, Riyadh, were damaged as a result of falling fragments of a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis from Yemen and intercepted by Saudi air defenses, at a time when the group announced that it had targeted King Khalid International Airport twice within hours.
The Civil Defense said, in a statement published on the X platform, that emergency teams dealt with falling fragments of the missile after intercepting and destroying it, noting that material damage occurred in the two facilities. He did not clarify the nature of this damage or whether there were any injuries.
The announcement came hours after explosions were heard in Riyadh, and the Iranian-backed Ansar Allah group announced that it had targeted King Khalid International Airport with a ballistic missile on Thursday afternoon, in the second attack that the group announced it had carried out against the airport during the same day.
The military spokesman for the Houthis, Yahya Saree, said that the missile hit its target, caused damage to the airport, and disrupted air traffic there. The Saudi authorities did not confirm this story.
Meanwhile, Riyadh Airport called on travelers to check the status of their flights with airlines before heading there.
Residents in the Saudi capital reported hearing several explosions earlier Thursday, while Agence France-Presse quoted diplomats as saying that they had received instructions to take shelter inside their embassies.
Residents told the agency that international schools took precautionary measures, and one of them moved the children to an underground floor for their safety. Two employees at the King Abdullah Financial Center also reported that some companies have begun evacuating employees from their offices.
The Houthis renewed their warning to international airlines against using Saudi airspace, while threatening to target vital infrastructure and oil facilities in the Kingdom, the largest exporter of crude oil in the world.
This comes after the Saudi authorities announced that three people were killed and 36 others injured in attacks targeting King Khalid International Airports in Riyadh and Abha on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Saudi-led coalition said it responded by striking 82 Houthi military targets in Yemen.
Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia have escalated in recent weeks, with renewed fighting in Yemen between the Iranian-backed group and government forces backed by Riyadh, after years of calm that ended last July.
On Monday, the Yemeni government forces launched a military operation called "Yemen Dawn", with Saudi air support, to restore areas controlled by the Houthis. According to Agence France-Presse, the battles have resulted in the deaths of more than 330 people since the start of the operation.
The Saudi authorities’ acknowledgment of damage to civilian facilities is rare, as their statements in recent weeks have been limited to limited information about the repercussions of the Houthi attacks.
Riyadh is facing an unprecedented wave of attacks since the outbreak of war in the region late last February, following the American-Israeli attack on Iran, to which Tehran responded by targeting countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, saying that its attacks target bases used by American forces.
The Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation explained that the person killed in the King Khalid Airport attack was a Sudanese resident, while the person killed in the Abha Airport attack held Egyptian and Algerian nationalities.
She added that the injured in Riyadh were five Saudis, two Egyptian residents, and a Pakistani resident, while among the injured in Abha were two residents of Bangladeshi and Filipino nationalities.
The 82 targets that the Saudi-led coalition announced to bomb in Yemen included missile facilities, command centers, communications systems, and fighter gatherings.
In Yemen, the Ministry of Transport of the internationally recognized government said that the Houthis attacked Aden International Airport on Wednesday with two ballistic missiles and a number of explosive drones.
She explained that one of the two missiles fell near the runway minutes before the scheduled landing of a passenger plane coming from Cairo, and its destination was diverted to Jeddah, according to the government-affiliated Yemeni news agency, "Saba."
On the ground, battles continue in western Yemen near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, as government forces seek to regain positions they lost last September.
The International Organization for Migration announced on Wednesday that more than 200,000 people have been displaced since the start of the latest round of fighting in Yemen.
The organization's Director-General, Amy Pope, warned that civilians were fleeing battles in search of safety without finding a safe haven, calling for increased funding to provide food and shelter for the displaced.
In light of the deteriorating humanitarian conditions, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that cholera cases have tripled in recent weeks, including in camps for the displaced, coinciding with the continued spread of measles, dengue fever and malaria.
This came after Reuters reported, citing an American official and a Syrian military official familiar with the matter, that Damascus was considering providing military assistance to Riyadh. Media Advisor to the Presidency of the Syrian Republic, Ahmed Muwafaq Zaidan, commented through his official account on the
